by Brenda Janowitz
Member since:
July 27, 2007

Is chick lit dead?

September 10, 2007 10:32 AM EDT
views: 266 | rating: 10/10 (8 votes) | comments: 19

There's always talk about chick lit, as a genre, being dead.  Which to me, a chick lit author, is highly infuriating.  I mean, I still love chick lit.  I still read chick lit.  And, dammit, I still write chick lit!  But, more importantly, when's the last time anyone declared that an entire genre of writing was dead?  Isn't that sort of like saying that mysteries are dead?  Or romance is dead?  Perish the thought....

What do you think?  Is chick lit dead? 

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Comments: 19

Laura C. Sep 10, 2007, 10:38am EDT
I don't think that chick lit is dead, just that it doesn't often get categorized as that anymore. It gets categorized as plain fiction or as YA fiction instead.
Richard Frisbie Sep 10, 2007, 10:41am EDT
Brenda, I'd love to see a definition of what exactly chick lit is. I can't imagine an entire genre disappearing, but I know that in my bookstore it never appeared! I have contemporary fiction, romance, mystery, westerns, horror, beach trash, sci fi, fantasy, suspense/thrillers and literature fiction sections (some would count autobiography as fiction, but that's cruel!) What does your publisher put on the spine by way of identifying the genre? - Fiction?
Yolanda Sly Sep 10, 2007, 12:10pm EDT
It's not dead! Just very hard to find ... you all should check out some of the entries in the First Chapters Contest - some of them are of the Chick Lit flavor. (that's a compliment). At RWA in Dallas I was told everything goes in cycles. I hope they're right!
Sharon K. Sep 10, 2007, 2:17pm EDT
Nope, chick lit is far from dead. As a book reviewer I get quite a few chick lit books each month. Women enjoy reading it. And some big publishing houses have a huge chick lit area. Brenda, have faith, chick will never die.
gautami tripathy Sep 10, 2007, 2:20pm EDT
I don't really understand what is chick lit. Soft romances are being replaced by almost porn stuff.
Kristin W. Sep 10, 2007, 2:31pm EDT
LOL. I hear you. Since I write inspirational Chic Lit (and ope to be published some day) I hope it's not dead. I think writers simply have to move past the shoes & fashion aspect of Chic Lit. It's tough though. I'm struggling with describing my stuff as Womens Fiction now.

Wedding Planner
Kathy K. Sep 10, 2007, 4:44pm EDT
i'd say no way, i've just started reading it this past year or so and there are so many more to read, it's just really fun.
Veronique AKA Zoe Sep 10, 2007, 7:06pm EDT
There is no way that chick lit is dead...I can't see how it ever would be. I think it all comes down to what one's perception of chick lit may be.
Layla Morgan Wilde Sep 10, 2007, 9:49pm EDT
Absolutely not. Trends ebb and flow but the market is there.
Click on this book cover Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket to open up my First Chapters Romance Entry!

Voting ends Sept.18th.
Machiavelli Dayupay Sep 11, 2007, 1:10am EDT
IS chick lit dead? Brenda, no I don't think so...

just like right now listening to one... ( chick lit as I understand the definition, doesn't alienate itself from literatures such as musics and paintings etc, though it is a term in conflict with particulars and the other way around... being it in resurrection and being it dead is "a mission impossible'' term)

It is like saying ''The general literature is dead also!!!...
Brenda Janowitz Sep 11, 2007, 3:34pm EDT
For me, chick lit is smart, funny fiction that is contemporary and fun. I'm so glad that you all seem to agree with my that it's alive and kicking. Viva la chick lit!
Candice Y. Sep 13, 2007, 3:48pm EDT
I dont think that chick lit. is dead, its just not as controversial or "in your face" as other genres. I think that it is seen as this because it is of new age women, very contemporary. its modern, and CHANGE. People are afraid of change so they put it aside like its not important. Perhaps afraid that it will overshadow traditional genres that we are comfortable with? To say it is dead is a way of not dealing with it and the importance it has on female society today.
Xavier Neduveli Sep 26, 2007, 1:51am EDT
I never heard someone say or seen any book shop categorising books as "chick lit".

Thanks Branda, you gave me a new word "chick lit", even if it is getting obsalite. :-)
Enoch Allen Oct 3, 2007, 3:17pm EDT
I don't really feel that chick lit as the genre is tritely referred to, has the audience that contemporary fiction and non-fiction has. You know, some of these works feature bubbly protagonists in Westfeldtian and Weisbergerian situations and often contain endings which are almost identical to its beginning. This is why I believe its long-suffering female audience has become more demanding of their favorite genre--by reading books which are a bit grittier, a bit more controversial. . .
Ishbel R. Oct 4, 2007, 5:04am EDT
I think there are many writers who seem to be pigeonholed in that category - but who simply write good, well-written stories. I like many of the modern Irish women like Patricia Scanlan and Sheila O'Flanagan (amongst others). I don't call them chicklit - I call them novels.
Veronica Hosking Aug 26, 2008, 11:58am EDT
Brenda, I work for a magazine www.momwriterslitmag.com . We do interviews with a lot of chick lit authors. There is no way it is dead. Personally it isn't my cup of tea, but I know a lot of women and some men who read it.
La Lady Lisa Westerfield Mar 21, 2009, 12:42pm EDT
Brenda, it will never be dead. After all, more women buy books then men. The death of chick lit is just wishful thinking on the part of misogynists men.
Kathryn E. Aug 25, 2009, 9:37am EDT
There are so many categories, for example, Temptation and Blaze from Harlequin, and so many others by other publishers. I do think now in 2009 that bling blingedy bling bling has to be toned down, because people are broke. But Romance is selling very well. People need escape.
Kathryn E. Aug 25, 2009, 9:37am EDT
As well as Red Dress Ink.

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